Dartford Charge appealed based on procedural impropriety then no response instead new PCN issued?!

[bigkahuna666]

Hi everyone,

 

I had a PCN for the Dart Charge, I forgot to pay the fee the next day.

The Contravention time and date was the 09/07 at 11:24.

 

The PCN issue date was Friday 17/07.

At the bottom of the PCN it clearly says

*service of this notice: Unless the contrary is proved, service of this penalty charge is deemed to have been effected on the second working day after the issue date shown at the top of this page. 

 

This would mean that my statutory 14 days would start counting on Tuesday 22/07 and give me until Tuesday 04/08 to pay.

However, I tried to pay this Sunday 02/08 and it already showed the increased charge online.

 

I gave them a call on Monday 03/08 to explain that I still have 2 days left to pay at the reduced rate.

The woman on the phone said that they start counting from the issue date.

I told here this would be wrong and referred her to the note re effective date at the bottom.

She said I would have to appeal.

 

I did appeal this on 08/08 on the grounds of being a procedural impropriety.

I have never received any response to my appeal, but instead I have just received a new PCN with a new issue date (03/09) but for the same PCN number/contravention details are the same. 

 

Am I right in thinking this is completely against protocol? 

 

It would be great if someone could shed light on this.

This new ticket is dated 03/09 (thursday), so again, my 14 days start counting on the 07/09 (this is the date i received it).

I would be interested to see if my reduced fee expired by tomorrow or by Monday

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Best,

P

[bigkahuna666]

Anyone?

[spaceman61]

I think I'm right in saying that the Dart Charge pcns state that payment at the discounted rate should be made within 14 days beginning with date of service.

 

That being the case, you need to go back and explain this to them. Have your pcn to hand when you speak to them so you can refer to it.

 

There is a time limit for them issuing a pcn from the date of the contravention. This is 28 days in parking, not sure what it is for Dart Charge pcns, which are basically issued under the same regulations as congestion charge and ULEZ pcns.

 

They can't 're-issue' beyond this date, so you'll need to look up the regulations to see what they say. You can find them on www.legislation.co.uk.

 

For info, 'procedural impropriety' is only a ground of appeal for pcns issued inder the Traffic Management Act 2004.

[bigkahuna666]

Shame, I paid the re-issue one on Monday as it was my last day of the discount. Interestingly, this time I had the 14 days plus 2 business days of assumed delivery time of the pcn, so they must have changed their system after my appeal. Annoyingly I had a feeling that I was right in that they cannot simply ignore my appeal and instead send out a new pcn instead. I just couldn't be bothered to ignore the new one and demand a response to my initial appeal. I doubt I can go back now and contest the payment being made :(